Fine until I could not bear it anymore and decided to have bacon, pancakes and an egg for breakfast on Tuesday after my dental cleaning and it's been a frantic food fest ever since.
Needless to say after my Friday workout I had gained half-pound; perhaps that doesn't seem like much to you but it means another two weeks to get my body to even THINK about reversing the trend. DOUBLE BUMMER.
To offset the gain I did a ZUMBA class this morning with the never-stand-still-Beth and now I remember what my knees have always known; a full hour of hi-impact dance aerobics really hurts. Yes, I made it to and though the market afterwards and got a food supply for dinners until Tuesday BUT tomorrow will be 'aching knee day,' and I will be cursing on Sunday (!). Meantime what have I been up to?
Making the packing list for our upcoming family travels. DH says I need three pair of pants. What does he know? So far I have a pair of dress-black slacks; chinos, one pair of white beach-pants, yoga pants, and just hemmed a pair of cotton navy slacks. That's five slacks and still may not be enough. Tops? That's another question altogether and I'm not quite ready for that. Four new tees arrived from Lands End, three v-necks recently acquired and two blue shirts found at Goodwill last week but will that be enough? Meantime I found two XL plaid shirts at Goodwill that have already become 8.5 inch squares for a (possible) patchwork project that I am still undecided about. But decided to begin collecting a bin of plaid squares just in case.
The BIG find for the past two weeks has been Inspector Brunetti, or more precisely author Donna Leon's fictive detective who lives and works in Venice (a great place to live and work!). Yes, I have been to Venice; twice in fact tho not in recent years. Mostly my love of Venice comes from graduate work on early 17th-century theater stage designs as created for the secular opera productions that found an welcoming audience in Venice (non-religious theater in Rome was prohibited by the Church).Leon's first mystery featuring the Inspector was "Death at La Fenice," published in 1992, just at the time I was researching Venetian theater history but somehow I missed her completely. Since I had just read John Berendt's book "City of Falling Angels," about the rebuilding of Teatro La Fenice in the '90s I could not pass up a mystery about same. Except, the public library did not have that book available SO- I grabbed book #2; Death in a Strange Country.
But that's not the end of the story. Leon has published nineteen books since 1992, including two that I just have to have:
Brunetti's Cookbook with the recipes for menus and foods found in the mysteries. As nearly everyone the Inspector meets loves to eat, especially the Venetian seafood specialities, how bad could that be?
I have maps of Venice, guidebooks to Venice, an old American Express guide to Venice but the Inspector knows every corner of Venice. Of course the inspector, as written by Donna Leon who actually has lived in Venice for over twenty-five years knows everything he knows. And after you have read all the mysteries and cooked all the dishes what's next?Why not visit Venice and see all the sights mentioned in the books? This is where Toni Sepeda's book "Brunetti's Venice: Walks Through Novels" is better than a CrackerJack surprise.
Rather than chapters, the contents are designed as twelve walks, each in a section of the city and mentioning all the places that Inspector Brunetti has found important in solving crimes. So far I have finished 'Death in A Strange Country,' am about 52% of the way through "Brunetti's Venice," and on Chapter 8 of Uniform Justice.
A list of all books, in the order of publication can be found at:
www.slowtrav.com/blog/annienc/2008/11/list_of_donna_leon_books, and Leon's website is at: www.groveatlantic.com/leon.
Good reading, great travel reading and even better if you know Venice. AND in the case you do not, what are you waiting for?
Get a ticket and get going....bbf
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